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China Says to Abide by WTO Rules While Enjoying Rights
The balance between rights and obligations is the fundamental principle of China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), China's top negotiator said in Geneva Friday.
"The WTO is a rule-based multilateral trade organization, and China is willing to abide by WTO rules while enjoying its rights as a WTO member," Long Yongtu, head of the Chinese delegation, told the 10th session of the Working Party on China's WTO accession.
"We will never accept further requests that China should undertake obligations exceeding those for ordinary WTO members, nor will we allow the rights that we should enjoy to be impaired or even deprived of," he added.
He stressed that WTO members must respect China's rights in the WTO if they expect China to fully honor its commitments. When China is able to enjoy all the normal rights as a WTO member, China will effectively enforce its commitment under the WTO agreement and the protocol.
Long thanked WTO members, especially those from the developing world, which believe that the WTO agreement should apply to China on a normal basis. "Their position will help safeguard the multilateral trading system and to defend the principle of fairness and equity," he said.
He said that he agreed to the summary made by chairman of the Working Party on China, Jean Pierre Girard, that important progress had been made on the multilateral process of China's WTO entry during the current session, adding that a good momentum had emerged from the multilateral negotiation process.
After this session, Long said, China will continue its consultations with the few WTO members yet to conclude bilateral talks with China.
He expressed the hope that the next Working Party meeting in July will accelerate the work on drafting all the multilateral documents so as to realize "the common objective of China's accession to the WTO".
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